Religion

= Religion of the Bedouin People =

//From Bedouininfo, the free wikispace//

**Religion**
The majority of the Bedouin are practitioners of Sunni [|Islam], although there are also a large number of Shia and some other religions.

As a primarily Islamic people they follow the majority of Islamic practices, including the hijab and ritual washing. They don’t handle pigs or eat pork. They believe in a bodily resurrection of the Day of Judgment, they believe that the Qur’an is the inspired work of God and that previous religious texts have been corrupted buy humans. They also believe in an infallible line of [|secession]that followed Mohammad’s death.



The World Around Them
The world around the Bedouin is the primary factor in shaping the stories they tell and the customs passed on. The animals, plants, and landscape are the source of the myths for the Bedouin.

T hey have a story about hyenas, they say that hyenas can control people’s minds at night and lead the people to the hyena's den where they are devoured. The hyenas hypnotize people with the scent from their anal glands and control them with their human like yelps.

Trial by Fire
Among other traditions are ordeals by fire to identify dishonesty. The [|Bisha’a], as it is called, is performed in only the most import situations. In cases where there is no reliable evidence of the crime. The ceremony is performed by asking the accused to like a hot instrument, like a spoon. They must do this three times then they are inspected by Mubesha, the presider of the right.

The tradition is traced back to a man named Weymer abu Ayad. He knew who had stolen something from him, but there were no witnesses so he challenged the man to lick a red hot brand three times, offering to do the same. The guilty man ran away before the challenge.

The practice of Bisha'a was made illegal in during colonial rule and is still illegal in modern Israel.